(Reader photo, July 16, 2023, 1300 block Alki Avenue)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

One year and three months after an Alki crash that left a woman fighting for her life after bystanders pulled her from her submerged car, we’ve learned that the driver accused of hitting her is charged.

We discovered during a routine periodic check of online court files that the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has filed three charges against Angel I. Godoy Cruz, now 24 – vehicular assault (a Class B felony), reckless driving (a gross misdemeanor), and “no valid operator’s license” (a misdemeanor).

Here’s how the charging document summarizes the allegations:

On Sunday, July 13, 2023, at approximately 5:46 p.m., the defendant, 23-year-old Angel Godoy Cruz, an unlicensed driver with suspended driver’s license privileges, was speeding on northbound Alki Ave SW in a 2011 Infiniti G37 sedan, traveling at approximately 83 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone along Alki Beach. Alki Ave SW is a two-way arterial street consisting of one northbound lane and one southbound lane, with the lanes separated by a single dashed yellow line. The defendant then weaved around a vehicle by traveling into the southbound lane and back into the northbound lane.

At the same time, 24-year-old Madison Kelly was driving southbound in a 2005 Toyota Corolla and began to make a left turn from Alki Ave SW into a parking lot. Less than two seconds into her turn, the defendant crashed into Kelly’s vehicle at approximately 83 mph, causing the Toyota to roll northbound and fall into Elliott Bay. It is only because of the heroic efforts of witnesses who jumped into the bay to rescue Kelly from her submerged vehicle by cracking a car window open with a rock that she survived the collision. Witnesses then performed CPR on Kelly until medics arrived, who transported her to Harborview unconscious and in critical condition, suffering from extensive traumatic brain injuries and internal injuries.

As people gathered to perform life-saving efforts on Kelly, the defendant exited his vehicle. One witness confronted the defendant and stated that the defendant would be going to jail. According to the witness, the defendant replied, “Why would I be going to jail?” to which the witness responded that he may have killed the driver. The defendant then stated, “I don’t give a s–t,” and went back into his car. Law enforcement then contacted the defendant and observed a strong odor of intoxicants from the defendant’s person and observed an open can of IPA beer in plain view on the rear floorboard of the vehicle. After being read his Miranda rights, the defendant claimed the beer was from several days prior and that he had not drank alcohol that day but admitted to consuming marijuana that morning. He admitted to driving around the first vehicle because “it was going slow” and admitted that the speed limit for the area was 25 MPH. A search warrant was issued authorizing a blood draw for the defendant’s blood to determine his BAC. The toxicology report determined the defendant’s BAC was .011 three hours and 14 minutes after the collision, well above the per-se legal limit. …

Notably, the defendant has never possessed a valid driver’s license, but has a history of repeated disregard for traffic safety laws: Speeding, No Valid Operating License (08/31/2022), Expired License (06/20/2022), Vehicle Plates Expired (02/28/2019), Speed Too Fast for Road Conditions, Expired License, Vehicle Plates Expired (11/20/2015)

According to the documents, police submitted the case to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office this past August; the charges were filed four weeks later, on September 20, with a request for $150,000 bail. However, when Godoy Cruz appeared for arraignment on October 3, Judge David Keenan set bail at $25,000, with electronic home monitoring as a condition, and gave him a week on personal recognizance to post bond. Godoy Cruz is required to do that, and to start electronic home monitoring, by the end of the day tomorrow (Thursday, October 10). If he fails to do so, prosecutors can seek an arrest warrant. (He had a North Seattle address at the time of the crash but has told the court he is now living in West Seattle. After the crash, he was taken to the hospital, rather than jail, because of injuries.)

We asked the KCPAO why the case took so long to file. Spokesperson Casey McNerthney confirmed that they received it four weeks before filing it, which was 13 months after the crash (we will be following up separately with SPD); those four weeks were spent reviewing the evidence, which, the office says, included a lot of video. (The court documents indicate that’s part of how they determined the 83 mph speed.)

As for the victim, we have sent inquiries to family/friends multiple times since the crash to ask how Ms. Kelly is doing, but have not received a reply. Regional TV reports said she was out of the hospital and inpatient rehab and back home two months after the crash.